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already Ijeen brought to a liigli state of perfection, before tlie 

 Pianoforte was invented. 



The ancestor of our present Pianoforte — the old clavier, or 

 clavecin — gave only one loudness of sound, and the later instrument 

 received its very name " piano " or soft, and " forte " or lond, from 

 the fact that one could obtain from it various gradations of sound. 

 The (;)rgan and the Clavier (or Pianoforte) are the only instruments 

 whicli suttice in themselves for the reproduction of a complete 

 musical art-work. Their literature is artistically very complete 

 and abundant ; and consequently tlieir study is tlie most import- 

 ant for a general knoAvledge of Music. 



Bach, wlio Avas born in 1685, was such an amazing artist and 

 genius, tliat his truly gigantic productions put everything else that 

 had l)een composed before his time into the shade. It is true that 

 his strong point does not exactly lie in his piano work, but rather 

 in his cantatas, ]ii.s great passion-music, motetts, and organ Avorks ; 

 nevertheh'ss, liis clavier works are so numerous and so important 

 that tliey certainly represent the essence and sum total of all the 

 piano literature of his epoch. They will retain their immeasurable 

 artistic value as long as musical art and the capacity to understand 

 and appreciate it, shall exist. 



Handel was contemporary witli Each. His great importance 

 lies in anotlier direction, viz., in the Oratorio; his clavier works 

 undoubtedly equal some of Bach's, but their number is far smaller. 



With regard to the form in which these tM'o great masters 

 Avrote, we find it principally as the so-called " Suite," or series, 

 which consists of a number of smaller pieces Avliich had resulted 

 from old dance forms. As all these pieces were in the same key, 

 a certain monotony was produced. Bach's and Handel's successors 

 transformed the suite into the " Sonata," Avhich signifies a piece 

 sounded or played on an instrument. This is the second great form 

 of composition for instrumental music. The Sonata usually 

 consists of four movements, or pieces, but these are far more 

 elaborately worked out than the pieces constituting the Sirite, an>l 

 an essential rule is that they should not be in the same key. Even 

 in the movements themselves modulation into other keys is far 



